A Global Protest
INTRODUCTION
This is a compilation of protests received from
Zarathushtis living in various parts of the world. Their faith, religious
beliefs and sentiments have been hurt and insulted and they have come together
from all over the world to show their solidarity and to protect their faith and
identity from being undermined and perhaps permanently damaged.
Over close to ten years, their faith and religious beliefs
have been regularly and systematically attacked and insulted by a smooth tongued
individual by the name of Mr. Ali Akbar Jafarey, who has implied that most of
their age-old prayers are false. He has told them that their rituals, which they
have performed over the millennia for the benefit of the souls of their
dear-departed and for their own spiritual development have been concocted by the
priests for their own benefit. He also advises them that their time-tested rules
of self-preservation are really outdated and should be discarded.
These Zarthushtis are now saying ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.
It is heartening to see that Zarthushtis have put aside
their petty differences in beliefs and come together as one people, whether they
are young or old, conservative or moderate, liberal or orthodox, knowledgeable
or ignorant, mobed or behdin, scholar or pupil.
They have banded together to lodge their strong protest
against a move by Mr. Jafarey's cronies to have him included as a speaker at the
forthcoming WZC2000 Congress to be held in Houston later this year. This volume
contains the protests they have collected to show the WZC2000 Governing Body
their conviction.
It is hoped that the Governing body will not take this
protest lightly or dismiss it as being the work of one or two individuals. It is
true that our people were alerted to this situation by one or two of us but
after that, the protest campaign snowballed as more and more Zarathushtis came
to realize the gravity of the situation. Volunteers collecting signatures often
heard "Aapray kai dharam nu khaas jaanta nathi pun dharam ne khatar jaan
deva taiyaar chhaiye". Volunteers have worked day and night to put this
protest together in a matter of just two weeks.
This protest document is subdivided into four parts:
Par; A - Contains selected protest letters from well-known
Zarathushti religious bodies and individuals (See Contents List).
Part B - Contains e-mail and other messages transmitted to
the two Co-Chairs, Dolly Dastoor and Homi Davier. Over 190 such protests running
into over 300 pages have been listed at the time of writing.
Part C - Contains over 400 signatures from protestors who
did not have access to the Internet. These were collected over the two-week
period and were concentrated mainly in the Mumbai area.
Part D - Is a collection of 13 sample letter fragments,
which Mr. Jafarey has posted on the Internet over the years. A vast number of
letters from Mr. Jafarey's cronies, obviously fuelled by his own writings, are
too abusive to be even included here.
From this you will see that there is tremendous sentiment
within the community against Mr. Jafarey's participation in this Congress. We
are looking to you, our two trusted Congress Co-Chairs, to not be swayed by the
antics of Mr. Jafarey or his cronies. We have placed the wellbeing of our
community in your hands. Although we have placed tremendous power in your hands,
there is also a tremendous responsibility on your shoulders. Please listen to
what we are saying and not allow any reckless behavior to jeopardize the faith
and identity of our people.
Please do not accept any move to have Mr. Ali Jafarey,
or any other such person from -his Assembly, getting involved in the WZC2000 in
anyway; and that includes any devious back-door entry also.
May Ahura Mazda grant you the strength, courage and wisdom
to guide our community safely over this hurdle. We thank you for your efforts
and wish you good luck and success in your noble endeavors.
February 5, 2000 2 of 2
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LINKS:
TABLE OF CONTENTS and Their Links
Introduction & the Gist of "The Plain Reality Behind The Intricate Falsity"
Analysis of the 26-page "Global Protest"